


Throat Full of Flowers

by LumenWatch



Category: Diabolik Lovers
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hanahaki Disease, Implied/Referenced Character Death, One-Sided Love, elements of non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-24 04:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17698034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LumenWatch/pseuds/LumenWatch
Summary: An angst-filled one-shot centered on the concept of Hanahaki disease, featuring the Tsukinami brothers. It’s a reader insert and the reader in is a position similar to Yui’s.





	Throat Full of Flowers

Shin wasn’t entirely sure exactly when he’d stopped viewing you as no more than a tool to restore his bloodline. When they’d first taken you from the Sakamaki brothers, he’d been mildly appalled that you were the hope he and his brother sought. Just some unremarkable human.

And yet, as the months passed, at some point that image faded and rather than just being a thing to use in an effort to try and one up his brother, you’d become your own person in his mind. Shin couldn’t say exactly what it was about you. Maybe it was that you took whatever he threw at you without ever really losing it. You’d even laughed a couple of times, and the sound of it made Shin catch his breath a little.

Even Carla seemed to have softened around you, which in and of itself was surprising. In all of their years together, Shin had never before seen the look in his brother’s eyes when he spoke to you.

Around the time Shin noticed this, he started to feel a light scratching in the back of his throat. Not anything worthy of concern, just a faint feeling of irritation that would come and go intermittently.

Then one day, he’d seen you and Carla walking together in the garden outside Banmaden. You’d been in the middle of saying something when you tripped over an errand branch, but before you could hit the ground, the founder king had slipped an arm around your waist and held you upright. You’d turned to look at him with a blush on your cheeks and there was something in your expression that Shin hadn’t seen before.

That night the cough had started, and the scratching in his throat grew to a burning flame. Shin had feared the worst then. He’d seen these symptoms often enough, as Endzeit ate away at the bodies of his people. But he couldn’t understand how he had been infected. Carla had told him that the sickness could only be spread through blood, and he’d made sure he hadn’t come into contact with any of the infected fluid.  

A couple of days later, he’d started coughing, only to something rising up the back of his throat. Shin retched and as he saw the contents of the lump that had been clogging up his throat flutter to the ground, he couldn’t believe his eyes. What looked like pink and white flowers petals, flecked with blood lay in an unceremonious heap on his bedroom floor. Sure enough, a light floral scent drifted through the room, mixed with the iron tang of blood. He’d picked up one of the fragments and knew then that he couldn’t be mistaken. It didn’t resemble anything from any sort of plant he’d seen, but the texture and scent were unmistakable.

He’d coughed up a bunch of flower petals.

Not once had he seen or heard tell of anyone infected with Endzeit having flora appear in the back of their throat. Shin couldn’t bring himself to ask Carla; couldn’t admit that he’d been afflicted by some strange sickness to the person he wanted to acknowledge his strength.

Time passed and the coughing worsened. The scent of blood and flowers seemed to follow him wherever he went, and it was an effort to keep anyone from finding the petals that would spew from his lips. Shin started avoiding you all together; it was too hard to be around you when at any moment his weakness could be revealed.

At first you’d still tried to seek him out, apologizing for any wrong you thought might have led to the younger founder distancing himself from you. But each time Shin would yell and berate you, hoping it would be enough to keep you away. And eventually, you’d stopped trying to talk to him. He didn’t realize how much your absence would affect him until the only time he saw you, was a passing glance in your direction whenever he reported to his brother. You only ever seemed to be by Carla’s side at that point, but Shin could only focus on trying to find a way to cure himself.  He’d deal with whatever damage had been done to you relationship after that.

One day, he’d overheard you telling his brother that you’d learned Karlheinz kept a large amount of notes on research relating to varying matters in the demon world while you stayed with the Sakamakis.

Just the name of the late vampire king made Shin want to grind his teeth but that kernel of information. Was it possible that the vampire had also kept notes on the illness that now affected Shin? He hadn’t stopped to consider it for too long. There had to be something somewhere that could help him.

And so Shin had broken into the vampire king’s old residence, relieved that the seals that had once kept him out seemed to have died with their source. After tearing through several rooms, he unearthed a stack of dusty research papers, and started flicking through them. Most were on things he’d never heard of and some were little more than bare-bone notes scribbled in thick black ink.

Then he found something that made his blood turn to ice in his veins. An entry titled ‘Hanahaki disease’ which described his symptoms perfectly. But it was the listed cause that sent him reeling, for according this research, only someone suffering from unrequited love would be afflicted with the illness and even then it was rare. For some reason your face flashed through his mind at the words but he shut those thoughts down before they could go anywhere.

He was a founder, the next in line to the throne. Tsukinami Shin would not be brought to his knees by something as stupid as unrequited love. Although he had half a mind to toss the damn papers into the fire, Shin had taken them with him when he left. Even if they seemed to be full of crap, he might be able to gleam something useful from them at a later date.

Later that day when he returned to Bandmaden, he’d found you with a beaming smile and a shiny engagement ring on your finger. It was all he could do not retch when you told him that Carla had proposed to you. He’d barely sleep due to the coughing fits that racked his body afterwards. White and soft pink petals spilling forth with every spluttering cough. But Shin still couldn’t acknowledge the cause. He couldn’t accept that he was in love with his brother’s fiancé.

The disease progressed as the months passed. The fits grew more regular and the scratching at the back of his throat was ever-present. But it was only on your and Carla’s wedding night, where Shin spent several hours bent over the toilet bowl, hacking up not just petals but chunks of whole flowers, splattered with his own blood, that he realized he couldn’t lie to himself anymore. He was in love with you. And he was suffering for it.

The papers he’d found had mentioned that the only way for a demon to be cured of the disease was for their love to be reciprocated, but surely there had to be another way. If he could just stop loving you then maybe it would go away on its own. And so Shin tried to find every reason to fall out of love with you. He noted your every fault, the dumb things he’d seen you do, the way you looked at his brother but wouldn’t look at him. It still wasn’t enough.

All he could do was hide the symptoms and hope that neither you, nor his brother noticed. 

And now with his fingers gripping the sides of the toilet seat, Shin shook as another coughing fit took hold. His throat burned while countless flower petals worked their way up from some infected part of his lungs to his mouth, only to be spewed out. Sharp white and pink petals flecked with blood tumbled into the water, occasionally dispersed as a larger clump of a flower would fall from his lips.

“Shin!” An all too familiar voice exclaimed from behind him. Shit, he must have been in such a hurry that he forgot to lock the door. 

Glancing up, he could see you stood in the doorway, your features twisted in panic. Turning his head slightly, Shin tried to force enough air into his lungs to be able to speak, to order you to leave before you discovered too much. However, before he could get the words out, he was retching again, clumps of petals splattered in red falling to the floor before he could stop them.

“What on Earth?” You gasped. But you didn’t hesitate before kneeling beside him, resting your hand on his back. “Shin what’s going on?”

“Get… Out…” He rasped, between coughs, but the worst of it seemed to be coming to a close.

“No, not until I find out what’s going on. When I heard you in here, I’d assumed it was Endzeit but…” your eyes drifted to the contents of the toilet. “These look like flower petals. Carla’s never shown a symptom like this.” Shin winced at the mention of his brother, gaze falling to the gleaming golden band on your finger.

“It’s none of your business,” he replied, voice hoarse though the spasms finally seemed to be fading from his body.

“Like hell it’s none of my business, I’m not just going to leave you here alone after witnessing that.” Looking at him with an assessing weight, you spoke again, a little more softly. “How long has this been going on for?”

Shin wished he had enough strength to force you out of the room but a tremble still lurked in his limbs and he didn’t trust that any exertion wouldn’t end in a another coughing fit. He hated that you could see him in this state, hated the concern in your eyes and hated the way your touch made him feel.

“Long enough that it’s a pain in the ass,” he said, trying to shrug off your hand. You removed it from his back, only to place in on his knee, as you settled yourself closer to him.

“That’s really not an answer, you know? Shin, please don’t shut me out. I want to help you, don’t take it as some sort of insult. I know you’re capable of handling yourself but I don’t want you to suffer on your own. Do you know what the cause of-” you waved your hand vaguely in the direction of the blood specked flowers, “-this is?”

“The cause, huh?” Finally Shin found the strength to lift his single gold eye to yours. Even now, some part of his brain noticed the way the light caught in your hair and sent the strands shimmering. And with your attention focused completely on him, you were so tempting and yet still so completely out of reach.  Some part of him fractured as he looked at you, the thing he so desperately wanted but could never have. Not with that wedding band sitting on your finger.

You’d chosen his brother, just like everyone else. And now that he was kneeling on the floor pathetically in front of you, Shin wondered why he’d ever thought you might choose him. Even in sickness, Carla at least still had his dignity. “Quit acting so concerned! You’re my brother’s now; this has nothing to do with you.”

“Please Shin,” you begged again.

“Stop it! Stop looking at me like that!”

“I just want to help you. Why won’t you let me?”

“Because this is your fault! If it weren’t for you, this never would have happened!” He yelled.

“My fault? What do you…” You trailed off, trying to think of anything you could possibly have done to cause this.

“Hah, I guess there’s no use in keeping it secret any longer. This,” he said, seizing the petals that had fallen on the floor in his hand. “Is due to something called hanahaki disease. Apparently it’s rare and affects both demons and humans, but with humans it’s eventually fatal. With demons on the other hand, it just leaves us perpetually suffering.” He crushed the blossoms in his hand, as though he could strike at the illness through the action.

“Hanahaki disease? I thought that was just a myth… But isn’t it supposed to be caused by a one-sided love?”

“Hahahaha,” the laugh was a broken, jarring sound. “So you know that much, huh? Well then, if you’re that desperate to help, why don’t you put it together on your own?”

You paused, thinking back over your conversation before your eyes suddenly widened in shock.

“No…” you said softly, looking down. “That can’t… No…”

“So you’ve figured it out, have you? What’s the matter?” Shin leaned over you. “Suddenly not so keen to help?”

“Shin you don’t…” Taking a deep breath, you raised your head. “It’s not that I don’t care about you Shin but Carla is… I gave my heart to him and there’s no going back on it now.”

“So that’s it, is it?”

“There must be some other way, something we can do.” You would never want anyone to suffer like this, especially because of you. And you cared for Shin, you really did but… it just wasn’t love.

“There isn’t.” His voice was cold. “In humans, they can do an operation sometimes, to remove the infection but for some reason it doesn’t work in demons. The only way is for their love to stop being one-sided.”

“I’m so sorry,” you said, vision blurring as tears started to well up in your eyes.

“Stop it!” He growled. “Stop looking at me with such damn pity!”

But you couldn’t stop. Even though realistically, you had no control over it, you still felt partially responsible. But you couldn’t give Shin what he needed.

“Damn it!” Shin yelled, shoving you to the floor. “If you care this much then it shouldn’t be one-sided, right?! Don’t act like this means so much to you when I can still feel the infection rotting away my body!”

“But you’re… You are important to me Shin, I just… It’s not enough. I want to help you but I don’t think I can.”

“You want to help me? Fine, maybe if I just take you then the disease will be satisfied. I told you to get out of here earlier but you didn’t take the chance, so you can’t blame me entirely for what’s about to happen.” Without giving you a chance to respond, Shin pressed his lips against yours. The kiss was hard and desperate. You could feel the weight of the wedding band on your finger and tried to push him off of you but to no avail. Shin nipped you bottom lip, just breaking the skin with his fangs, making you gasp in pain. He took the chance to force his tongue into your mouth, and the iron tang of blood coated your tongue.

“Mrhm!” You let out a weak sound as you tried to shove him off of you once more. This time he yielded, but he stayed leaning over you. Too breathless to speak, you simply lay panting on the floor.

“Hah, this isn’t enough,” He said, running his hand up your leg. “You said you wanted to help, so you’ll let me do it right?”

“No Shin, this isn’t right, please-“ He sealed your mouth with his own once more, crushing your body with his. The hand on your leg dipped under the material of your dress, until it reached the rim of your underwear.

Unable to take it anymore, you ripped your head to the side and yelled. “Carla, please help me!”

The words were enough to make Shin stop. “I see, so even now, you’re just thinking of him aren’t you? Why,” his voice cracked. “Why can I never obtain what I want?” He stayed leaning over you for a moment before standing. “Go.”

You were too stunned to move, your body lighter and yet colder now that he’d stepped away.

“I told you to get out! Run back to your beloved husband, or else I’m going to finish what I started and I won’t stop next time.”

Slowly getting to your feet, you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him. “I really am sorry Shin,” was all could say before you fled from the room.

The male stared down at the flower petals, stained a dull red-brown by the now dried blood. He couldn’t go on like this, live in this sort of disgrace, lusting after his brother’s wife. No, this had to end.

* * *

You couldn’t quite bring yourself to tell Carla what had happened. Once you were sure Shin was gone, you’d returned to the bathroom and found all evidence of flower petals gone. The only proof that the entire thing hadn’t been a dream was a small reddish smear on the floor, and your own bruised lips.

Your husband had been meeting with some high up member of the Adler clan and so was none the wiser to the commotion. Wearing your usual smile, you’d greeted him as you normally would. You weren’t sure how you’d handle seeing Shin again, but you told yourself you’d research the disease and find some way to help the man you probably would have fallen for had it not been for Carla. There had to be some other way, you couldn’t accept the alternative.

It was only when Shin didn’t appear after Carla sent a familiar to summon him that you started to worry. No matter what may have happened, Shin had never ignored a summons from his brother and a small search, only yielded that he was no longer in Banmaden. Even so, you couldn’t tell Carla the truth when he asked you if you knew anything. In spite of what he had done, the fact remained that it was not your secret to tell. It wasn’t hard to see why Shin had tried so hard to keep it hidden from Carla. Fortunately, the founder king seemed to believe you and sent several familiars to scour the land for his wayward brother.

They returned several hours later and your blood ran cold as they entered the room, with no sign of Shin behind them. A terrible twisting feeling filled your gut and although you couldn’t understand them yourself, you knew whatever news they brought was nothing good as you watched Carla’s face fall. He was a difficult man to read, but for once it was not hard to recognize the expression in his eyes as he turned to you.

In that moment you knew what he was going to say before he spoke, and silently begged that he wouldn’t speak; wouldn’t reveal the terrible truth you could feel building.

“Shin attacked the Vibora clan without provocation and was caught. They…” He took a breath to steady himself. “They found retribution through his death. Shin, why would you…” Carla trailed off, his mind travelling to a place that you couldn’t reach.

But you couldn’t focus on that right now, not as the weight of the words hit you. Shin was dead. And you knew exactly why he’d done something so reckless, something so likely to get him killed. You couldn’t breathe. It felt as though you were choking and no air would enter your lungs. Almost as though your throat had been filled with flowers.

 


End file.
